


coworkers

by michpat6



Series: aftermath [10]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, fi rights!, idk how to write purah lmao, link is concerned about zelda and zelda's just exhausted, the master sword is sentient and I will die on this hill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28298112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michpat6/pseuds/michpat6
Summary: Link is worried about her.
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: aftermath [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033743
Comments: 11
Kudos: 144





	coworkers

Link is worried about her.

As of today, they’ve spent their first week living the house, which means Zelda has been free for a month.

A month in which she’s barely even glanced at the Sheikah Slate.

He’s not trying to push her into taking it from him, he doesn’t want to rush her recovery and make her think she _has_ to take it, but he wants her to. He thinks it’ll help distract her from whatever’s had her so gloomy since their talk.

 _You’re the Hero, Hero. You tell me_.

He shakes his head, rolling onto his back and staring up at the dark ceiling. It’s early morning, and he woke up to drink some water but now he can’t fall back to sleep, so of course his mind wanders to the memory.

They were somewhere near the dining hall, he thinks, heading in the direction of the library. Her hand was small in his, soft and warm, and he asked her something. What did he ask her?

She took his face between her hands and gave him a coy smile and softly teased, _You’re the Hero, Hero. You tell me._

And then she was lifting on her toes and tugging him down-

No, no she wasn’t, because Before she was taller than him. Not by much, but she was. She was just tugging him closer, that’s all, and her smile was widening as she leaned in to meet him-

The house creaks, settling, and Link sighs.

He doesn’t remember a kiss.

He turns his head and looks up at the loft. Zelda’s taken to having the window uncovered and open at night, so moonlight spills into the house unchecked and the cold breeze has him burrowed under his blanket. He can just barely see the outline of her shoulder, and if he strains he can hear her breathe.

She’s been looking tired, lately. The shadows are back under (in) her eyes and for the past few days she’s been sitting out in the sun, staring into space.

He’d be more worried if he hadn’t done the same thing during his first weeks in the Wild, when he wasn’t busy doing something for Rhoam, or for Impa, or for Purah-

Link sits up. _Purah. Of course!_

Careful not to make too much noise, he gets dressed in his Champion’s tunic and trousers and puts the Master Sword on his back, picking up the Sheikah Slate from its new home on his floor and turning it on as he pulls his boots onto his feet.

He squints down at the screen and navigates to the map, tapping Purah’s lab and warping away. It’s even colder at the top of the hill, so much so that he can see his own breath and feel it cut through his clothing like a knife, but he doesn’t care because he’s pushing open the door to the lab and calling, “Purah!”

Symin, who’s sitting at the cluttered table with his feet up and a book on his face startles awake with a snort, almost falling out of his chair.

“Linky!” Purah pops out from behind the Guidance Stone, the googles that are usually on her forehead on her face and her thin red glasses hooked on her shirt. Her white hair is stained with what looks like oil, and in her hand is a screw driver. She lifts the goggles back to her forehead and puts her glasses back on. “I was just telling Symin about how excited I was for the next time you walked through that door! You have the slate on you?”

He opens his mouth to respond but she spots it and her eyes light up. She drops her screwdriver, sprints to his side, tears the slate from his belt, and skips back to the Guidance Stone, dragging a stool in front of it.

“If I did this right, you should be able to upgrade Magnesis and tear a Stalker’s legs off!” she cheers, hopping onto the stool and tapping at the slate’s screen. “I’ll even do it for free because I like you so much! Ganon won’t know what hit his ugly mug-“

 _Shit_ , Link thinks. He forgot to tell Purah that he killed the Calamity. And that Zelda is back.

“There’s no need,” he tells her. “The Calamity’s gone."

Symin does fall out of his chair at that. Purah freezes, fingers hovering over the slate.

“The Calamity’s what now?” she asks.

“It’s gone,” he repeats. “I killed it, and Zelda sealed it away.”

The child stares at him. “Symin, go look in the telescope.”

“R-Right!” Symin scrambles to his feet and out the back door.

As soon as her assistant is gone, Purah sags. “Come here.”

He approaches, and stops a foot away. Even on the stool she’s still not tall enough to properly meet his gaze, but when she looks up at him there’s over 120 years behind her six year old eyes.

For once, she looks her age.

“If this is payback for me making you think Symin is the director I’ll throw you off this cliff,” she says, serious. “It’s not a funny joke.”

“I’m not joking,” he tells her. “It’s been gone for a month. Zelda and I spent that time getting here-”

“The princess is alive?” The researcher blinks, and her eyes shine. “Is-Is she old?”

“No, she’s like me. She didn’t age.”

“How is she?”

“That’s what I came to talk to you about before I remembered you didn’t know she was back.”

He tells her about the Bad Days. He tells her that it’s been a month, and that Zelda has yet to take back the slate. He tells her about the weird mood she’s been in for the past week, and that he’s tried everything he could think of to cheer her up but that none of it is working.

“Ancient technology makes her smile,” he finishes. “So if I can convince her to come up here can you think of anything for her to do? I think it’ll be good for her to get out of the house, be with someone else other than me.”

“You got it!” Purah grins, perking up. “Stop by anytime!”

He thanks her, turns to leave, but the child grabs his elbow and stops him in place.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she asks. “You didn’t give me a snap!”

Link sighs. “I have to get back, if Zelda wakes up and I’m gone-”

“Snappity snap, Linky!” she snaps her fingers in his face. “What do you think this is?”

He gives her a weak snap and she lets him go, muttering about how she forgot that Symin’s afraid of heights and is probably stuck on the roof with the telescope.

Zelda is still asleep when he gets back to the house. The sun is rising, and his stomach is growling, so he looks through his cabinets and grabs the ingredients to make some omelets, two plates, and silverware.

He’s sitting outside, waiting for the cooking pot to warm, when the door opens and she sits down next to him, rubbing her eyes.

“Morning,” she mumbles.

“Morning,” he whispers back. “Didn’t think you’d be up for a while.”

She yawns. “Sun woke me.”

“You could cover the window.”

“No. It’s too dark.”

Is that why she’s not sleeping well? She doesn’t like the dark?

“Oh,” Link tries to think of a solution. “I could, um, buy some candles if you want a light. I think there are already some-”

“No,” she repeats. “It’s too dark.”

 _I’ve already tried,_ he translates.

“Um,” he swallows. “The slate’s in need of an upgrade.”

She looks at him, curious. “It upgrades?”

Inwardly, he celebrates. It’s the first time she’s asked anything about it. “Yeah. Purah’s just up the hill, and she knows you’re back. I was thinking we could go up there later, get the slate looked at?”

“Purah...” she falters, looking up at the giant lab atop the hill. “Purah’s still alive?”

He nods. “She wants to see you. Are you up for it today?”

Zelda picks blades of grass, twisting them into knots. “The hill is steep.”

“Good thing you have a horse.”

She sighs. “Link-”

“She said she’ll throw me off the cliff.”

“You have a paraglider.”

“But getting thrown off of a cliff really sucks.”

She chuckles, and _victory_! She hasn’t laughed in days!

“Please?” he asks. “Just to say hi, that’s it.”

Zelda nods. “Just to say hi.”

He grins, cracks an egg into the cooking pot, and makes the best omelets of his life.

She’s still down as they eat breakfast, subdued in a way that reminds him of Teba, but at least she’s eating. At least he can get her to laugh.

At least she’s talking to him again.

_You’re the Hero, Hero. You tell me._

Goddesses, he wants to ask her about it.

“How’d you sleep?” he asks instead.

She shrugs, pushing the remainder of her omelet around her plate. She’s only eaten half of it. “What about you?”

He shrugs, too. “Fine.”

Link just-He just wants to have a _real_ conversation with her, not this awful small talk where it’s like they’re total strangers who have never met.

Although, isn’t that what they are? Strangers? He doesn’t _really_ know who she is, just what he could learn about her from the slate, and she only knew him Before, when he was a completely different Link with a completely different mindset and had a completely different relationship with her.

( _Did they kiss_?)

No, he decides. They aren’t strangers, but it’d be assuming too much to call her his friend. They’re…partners. A princess with the blood of the Goddess and her knight, the Hero chosen by the Master Sword. Destined to work together to save the world from eternal darkness.

Divine coworkers, maybe?

Next to him in the grass, the Master Sword buzzes in its scabbard. Zelda huffs a laugh.

“It’s angry at you,” she tells him. “I don’t know why, but it is.”

“You-” he meets her eyes. “You can understand it?”

_Can you hear it yet, Hero?_

“Only what it feels,” she sets her plate down. A fly lands on her half-eaten eggs. “I…I could hear its voice when you fell and when I was taking it back to Korok Forest, but since I’ve been free all I’ve been able to get from it is emotions.”

He glances down at his sword. “What kind of emotions?”

She hesitates, then, “A lot of anger. A deep, almost primal rage that rivals the hatred of the Calamity. It’s not directed at you, not always, but when it is there’s no animosity. I imagine it’s like when a sibling is angry with you for something stupid, like when Impa used to steal Purah’s goggles and Purah would chase her with a screwdriver.”

He sees two young Sheikah women running around him in circles. One is clinging to Purah’s goggles, laughing as she dodges a vicious swipe of a screwdriver and telling him to, _Be a real knight and protect me, Link_!, and the other is yelling at him to do nothing, saying something about Guardian experiments and how, _I need those so I don’t go blind, Impa! Glasses would not look cute on my cute face and you know it! Leave Linky out of this!_

 _Big Brother!_ He’s standing on a platform with a small blonde girl, looking out at a vast ocean- _Big Brother!_

 _No,_ he says to himself, clenching his fists and digging his nails into his palms. _Not now._

“It’s almost…frustrated, when it’s mad at you,” Zelda continues, unaware of Link’s struggle to stay with her in the present. “Like it knows whatever you did to make it angry isn’t really your fault."

She pauses as the sword hums.

“It’s guilty, now,” she translates, and a small smile graces her lips. “I think it’s sorry.”

He touches the hilt and whispers to it, “I forgive you.”

He silently adds, _I’m mad at me, too._

The sword that seals the darkness hums again, and he has a feeling it’s pleased.

Zelda isn’t ready to go see Purah until after lunch, and even then she’s reluctant.

“What if she’s mad at me?” she asks him, mounting Storm Junior and getting settled on the saddle. She’s changed into a Hylian tunic, trousers, and boots like his, her hair tied back into a long ponytail.

“Mad at you for what?”

“For seeing Impa first? For being here a week and not going to see her? For-”

“She’s not mad,” Link reassures. “She’s acting like a little kid because she’s so excited to see you.”

He hasn’t told her about Purah’s new appearance. He wants her to be as surprised as he was, because maybe it’ll make her laugh again, get her talking about science.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Their hike to the lab is quiet. The Master Sword is silent, too, clinking in its scabbard as he walks beside Storm Junior, and he can’t help but look at Zelda.

Every single time, he is floored by her beauty. At the way she handles her horse, guiding and soothing it like an expert, at how her ponytail swishes on her back from the rocking movement of being in the saddle, of just-of how _good_ she looks, how she good she _always_ looks, and how blessed he is to be able to lay his eyes on her.

Zelda glances down at him. “What?”

“What?” he chokes. _Caught!_

“You’re staring at me. Is something wrong?”

“N-No,” he stammers, feeling his ears get hot. “Just-Um. Admiring how you ride your horse. You’re handling him really well.”

She smiles, sitting a little taller. “Thank you.”

They get to the lab, and Link helps Zelda off of Storm Junior before fastening him to the ancient furnace.

“That won’t be too hot for him?” she asks.

“No,” he shakes his head. “I’ve done it before for longer. Ready?"

Zelda takes a few breaths, and pushes open the lab door.

“Princess!” Purah immediately crashes into her legs, hugging them tight. “Hylia am I glad to see you! It’s been, what, a hundred years?”

Zelda’s jaw drops as she stares down at the child. “ _Purah_?”

“The one and only!” Purah hops back, smiling wide. “Linky told me you might stop by!”

“What-How are you-”

“Oh, this?” The 124 year-old child motions to herself. “I messed up a de-aging experiment. I’ll tell you all about it later!”

“Purah,” Link says. “Can you let us inside?”

“Of course!” Purah steps aside and almost drags Zelda into the lab. “Close the door, Linky, I have top secret research for Zelda’s eyes only!”

The princess glances back at him, bewildered, and Link shrugs, trying not to laugh at the sudden chaos.

 _Looks like she took ‘Distract Zelda’ to the extreme,_ he thinks, noticing that the Guidance Stone is powered down and that there’s a mess of broken wires sticking out from it. Symin is standing by the bookshelves, and when he sees them he bows his head before turning back to his book.

“What happened to the Guidance Stone?” Zelda manages, walking behind it and kneeling where the wires dangle in the air.

“That’s what I need your help with!” Purah cheers. “I’m trying to make it so that it can upgrade the magnesis rune to rip a Guardian Stalker’s legs off. Have any ideas?”

Link smiles as Zelda automatically peers into the mess of wires, and over the top of her head Purah meets his eyes.

He mimes snapping his fingers and she grins, flashing him the peace sign before Zelda murmurs a suggestion and points to a wire.

“Brilliant!” The scientist cheers. “While we work, I can tell you all about how I tricked Linky into thinking Symin over there was the lab director!”

Zelda laughs, and Link leans back against the messy work table, watching her talk.

The Master Sword hums, and she meets his eyes for a moment.

Her smile is like the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> link do be kind of simping for zelda tho


End file.
